Monday, September 13, 2010

Every Christian should be aware of these. The following endorses genocide, violence, rape, forced marriages, infanticide, and even cannibalism.

1. "..devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. " 2. "Happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us, he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks."3. “But of the cities of these peoples which {Allah} gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive, but you shall utterly destroy them."4. "And when [Allah] shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them."5. "And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword." 6. "Their children shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes! There houses spoiled, and their wives raped...Dash the young men to pieces...have no pity on the fruit of the womb, the children shall not be spared..."7. "So [he] smote all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings: he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as [Allah] commanded."8. "We took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city, we left none to remain." 9. "And [he] smote the land, and left neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep, and the oxen, and the asses, and the camels, and the apparel. And [he] saved neither man nor woman alive."10. "Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the female children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves." 11. "But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me."12. "And he brought forth the people that were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick-kiln: and thus did he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon." 13. “If a man finds a young woman who is a virgin, who is not betrothed, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are found out, then the man who lay with her shall give to the young woman’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife because he has humbled her.."

14. "If his master has given him a wife, and she has borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself."15. "And if you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and desire her and would take her for your wife, then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails. She shall put off the clothes of her captivity, remain in your house, and mourn her father and her mother a full month; after that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. And it shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall set her free."

16. "Make ready to slaughter his sons for the guilt of their fathers; Lest they rise and posses the earth, and fill the breadth of the world with tyrants." 17. "If there be found among you... man or woman....who hath gone and served other gods and worshiped them, either the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded...then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman who has committed that wicked thing unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones till they die."18. "Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst. But you shall destroy their altars.."19. "You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; your enemies shall fall by the sword before you."20. "Take all the heads of the people and hang them up before {Allah} against the sun.” 21. "They shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up!" 22. “And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.”

These Verses are brutal and terrifying. The only problem is, they are NOT from the Qu'ran, they are ALL from the Bible. It's not hard to rip troubling verses out from their original surroundings, like so many of us have done to our Muslim neighbors, taking no consideration for context, interpretation and application. And by the way, some of these verses IN context are no less troubling. But those of us who believe and follow the Bible (at least most of us) are not plotting and carrying out genocide, violence, etc. etc.

When verses from our holy book are ripped out of context, misrepresented and used against us, well, it's deeply offensive and frustrating. May I suggest, we do unto others as we would have others do to us? In this case, let's read the Qu'ran in context and find out from Muslims themselves how they understand and live out the heart of their religion and what the various interpretations and applications are for such difficult texts. At the very least, let's be aware of the troubling verses in our own holy book before we start throwing stones at everyone else's holy books...

22 comments:

Here's the opening few paragraphs of a book which I co-edited with a colleague about 3 years ago. It is called "Validating Violence–Violating Faith?" and was published by the Australasian Theological Forum. It deals with the issue across a range of religious traditions. Chris Stanley from the US contributed two keynote chapters comparing violence and peace across Jewish, Muslim and Christian scriptures. You can read more info at http://www.atfpress.com/atf/images/toc_validating_violence_violating_faith.pdf

Cheers,John

It is not easy to accept that violence lies at the heart of scripture. Violent images in the narrative; at times, these are present. Violent words, spoken by characters in the story; these are certainly evident. Violent actions in the text; quite clearly, these are to be found. Violence as a quality espoused by a great religious figure; this becomes problematic for believers. Violence at the centre of God’s being, manifested in what God does and who God is; this raises profound theological dilemmas.

Perhaps, we may think, it is in the scriptures of ‘other’ religions, but surely not in ‘ours’, not those scriptures that have nourished us since childhood and shaped who we are. Yet, we cannot ignore this plain fact—no matter whether we are Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims or Sikhs, our sacred scriptures contain disturbing and violent texts.

Often these texts are ignored. They are not seen. They are omitted from lectionaries. They are glossed over. They are rarely preached or studied. And if they are, they are distorted beyond recognition or literally observed without understanding.

Ignoring violent texts is like camping on the bank of a crocodile-infested river. It is dangerous. It is naive in the extreme. These Leviathan-like texts should be treated with the utmost respect and caution. They can erupt with violent force when it is least expected.

"Validating Violence–Violating Faith?" might be thought of as a different journeys along crocodile-infested rivers. Eight Australian scholars, one African, one American and a Tongan train their spotlight on these texts, these ‘reptiles’ of violence. They know the terrain. They understand the habitus. They appreciate the dangers.

I have no idea what translation of the Quran you were reading or who you got it from but there is no Arabic version that contains these messages. I find your islamophobia repulsive. Not that I expect this comment to stay on your board for very long... much like Fox, one must control their narrative eh?

Wow! This is my first introduction to your blog. I am really looking forward to reading more and, hopefully, being able to discuss differences in opinion and interpretations with an intelligent, compassionate, and open-spirited woman of God, because those opportunities are so seldom.

Ms Lynn, congratulations for this effort of enhancing mutual understanding and empathy. I appreciate the post and enjoyed the witty remark in the end.

When I first began reading, my reaction was "Oh another one again... OK. Let's check the comments and hope someone gave a proper answer" so I did not finish the verses and jumped up to the comments, because one cannot always find the patience against the inner hurting about the misrepresentation of the word of Allah (be it Quran, Gospel or Torah). Then I noticed Mr. Tarek's and your comments, so I went back and saw your clever and thoughtful messages in the end. I guess this is more or less what happened to Mr. Tarek.

When we commit ourselves in promoting what is good and evading what is wrong, we might face things that we should stand in patience. In the Quran, Lukman says to his son:"O my dear son! Be constant in prayer, and enjoin the doing of what is right and forbid the doing of what is wrong, and bear in patience whatever [ill] may befall thee: this, behold, is something to set one's heart upon!" (31:17).

So I congratulate you agan. Barekallah! and I hope that believers will enjoin and help each other in applying the word of Allah in their lives.

Man, the only context you need to understand wrt the early Old Testament vs later prophets and New Testament is, that the Jews grew and their religion along with them. Step outside the Bible a bit (like, 'The Gifts of the Jews' or, some of Karen Armstrong's books (pick one)), and it'll fit so much more neatly. Unfortunately you'll have to ditch the literalness of what people claim the Bible claims and go to a vaguer 'faith'. - if you ever get tired of twisting and turning your mind trying to make it all fit and be 'God breathed' etc, at least.

It's dangerous to encourage people to read both the bible and koran for themselves, in context? It's dangerous to advocate listening to the voices of people who actually hold the belief in the Koran to explain the various interpretations and applications of difficult texts within their holy book (just like we would want nonchristians to listen to how we interpret/apply the difficult/confusing verses in our bible)?

Amongst the replies to the post, there has been some confusion, requiring people to read the last two paragraphs a second time. This confusion is created because people are led to believe that the verses are from the Qu'ran by the heading, "scariest verses from the Qu'ran." A less misleading heading would have been "Scariest religious verses."

Great stuff! I was a pastor for years and am not anymore because I couldn't reconcile verses like these with a God who loves me. Even though some of the commentators sadly didn't bother to read to the bottom (too bad, they missed your brilliant point), I got your point at #2 with Psalm 137:9. Maybe one day Jews and Bible-believing Christians will wake up to the fact that their holy book is the basis of the worst parts of the Quran and the Sharia madness slowly taking over the world. Until then, (sigh) the online religious war over whose religion is better seems doomed to spin out indefinitely.

Our Holy Islam exhibit us lesson of love and kind to each other. Quran is our wonderful and last book of religious Islam. Quran show us to spend our life as demonstrated by Allah,s sales and Muhammad (PBUH), orders. I am doing my dedication to teach the Quran to my Islamic family. We ought to must educate and learn Quran to get a handle on the Islam and Allah and his Last prophet of Allah Muhammad (PBUH).

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